"This is not a field where one paints a painting which will be looked at for centuries...This is a field where one does his work and in ten years it is obsolete."
I loved the metaphor:
"It's sort of like a sentiment of rocks. You're building up a mountain and you get to contribute your little layer of sedimentary rock to make the mountain that much higher. No one will see it, but they will stand on it."
I think this is so true. Tech is about building on what others have done. Picking up where on person left off. It's a never ending cycle.
I also like the line "it'll be appreciated by that rare geologist". In 100 years when historians are looking back on the tech boom that we are currently living in, it'll be very interesting to see what goes down in history books as the most influential invention, device, software etc that really started this revolution.